Procedural justice in low carbon living for lower income households: An Australian case study

Research on energy has in recent years gradually shifted from fuel poverty to energy deprivation, and lately more so on energy justice. This shift signifies a turn away from simply quantified affordability indices to more nuanced understandings of access (or lack thereof) and its impacts. This increasingly includes access to ‘green’ energy produced from renewable sources. This paper reports on findings from a recently completed project that examined the barriers that 164 lower-income households in four distinct climate regions across Australia faced in transitioning to low carbon living. Australia was chosen as the case study as it was one of the 192 signatories of the 2015 Paris Agreement, slowly making transitions from a coal-dependent nation to a low carbon future.Similar to European experiences, Australian research participants reported signs of energy deprivation and adopted a range of compensating behaviours. As a result, most participants noted significant impacts – both in the short and long terms – such compensations had on their physical and social wellbeing. While assistance programs were available, participants reported inequitable access to financial assistance and information arising from residential location, language competency, and especially their housing tenure. We analyse these barriers using Sovacool and Dworkin’s (2014) four principles of procedural justice – access to information; meaningful participation; lack of bias; and opportunities to redress – in explaining how lower-income households may be systematically precluded from fully contributing to a low carbon future